SPIDER-MAN

In The Amazing Spider-Man #258 (1984), Peter Parker finally got the black suit off — Reed Richards' sonic equipment at the Baxter Building drove the living costume away and locked it up, revealing it as a symbiote. That left Peter standing in the Fantastic Four's headquarters in his underwear, with a long trip home across Manhattan and no mask. Johnny Storm's solution was a spare, old-style Fantastic Four uniform from a closet — and, because the FF famously wear no masks, a brown paper grocery bag with two eyeholes torn in it.

Peter swung home in exactly that: blue FF suit, paper bag, bare feet in the team's boots, mortified. Johnny added one finishing touch out of pure fraternal cruelty — a "Kick Me" sign taped to Peter's back. The indignity lasted a single trip, but readers never let it die: the outfit picked up the name the Bombastic Bag-Man, and Marvel has kept reviving it ever since, from anniversary gags to video-game unlockable costumes.

The joke lands harder for what the bag replaced. The sleek black suit Peter had just escaped would bond with Eddie Brock and become Venom, one of his deadliest enemies — while its discard pile produced the silliest look of his career on the very same day. One costume change, two legends: a nightmare in black, and a punchline in paper.